The New Normal

I feel like I will want to be able to look back at this eventually.  I haven't been doing personal blogging for a myriad of reasons of late but circumstances have changed and it suddenly feels important.

Today marks 15 days since the family has been out of the house beyond walking in the neighborhood.  Two Saturdays ago the boy took me and Mrs. TANBI and his sister to the comic book store so he could show mom the wonders he'd discovered.  That was two days after his school had cancelled out of an abundance of caution in the wake of the spouse of a staffer coming into contact with a suspected COVID-19 patient.  Before the weekend was out PPS had cancelled for two weeks - which ended two days ago.  Two days ago they cancelled through spring break.  The girl's daycare hung in through the following week but has been closed since.  Mrs. TANBI works from home normally now but usually has a trip or two to a local office and those have been stopped for two weeks as well.  The Monday after the comic book store was the start of CMU's spring break and like Thursday or Friday of that week we were told we weren't coming back to campus and that all classes would go online midweek the following week.

That's the frame for the new normal.

I've been out of the house a few more times than the others.  I've made two grocery store trips.  We've been stocking up on frozen and dry goods.  There's a pretty good stock on hand these days and I think the next trip could be a ways down the line.  I didn't do too well on Lysol or hand sanitizer.  We'd bought a large thing of TP before this really broke.  I had a small amount of PPE in my home gear - not enough to matter anywhere else, but enough that I can feel safe, if silly, when I go to the store.  I had to go to the Home Depot once.  I sheared off a bolt on a new yard toy for Leo.  The social distancing at the home center wasn't great.  Yesterday I walked to a place in the neighborhood for takeout lunch.  The boy came with.  In hind-site that felt a little reckless.

So now me and Mrs. TANBI are working from home together.  While we're doing that we're also handling a six year old and a 10 month old.  PPS hasn't really set up any formal distance learning yet.  Their main concern appears to have been getting food to the kids that depend on them for meals.  We're not too worried about the boy's progress.  10 weeks of kindergarten shouldn't be life altering, but we are concerned about the loss of socialization.  He hasn't played with a friend in over two weeks.  Even if that is the new normal it isn't all that normal.  My wife and I are splitting the day a lot like we did when the boy was born.  My work schedule is largely the same as it was then - one of the few times the lumbering pace of change at the university has worked for us.  So I watch the kids in the morning and Mrs. TANBI (MT?) watches them in the afternoon.  "Watch" is a misnomer as often the younger child will refuse to be put down for long stretches and although the older child is capable of entertaining himself his predisposition is to want to play with one of us.

The girl at least still has a two a day nap schedule which is fairly dependable.  We've put together a regular schedule for the boy that involves free play, parent play, creative play, substitute school work, physical activity, and screen time.  Unfortunately the last two are often the same and if not supervised he often just sits down and watches the exercise video rather than moving along with it.  It is all a work in progress.

The constant paying of attention is exhausting.  Both of us should probably be doing more work hours than we are, but after we get both kids in bed unless there is a deadline crushing down we usually just crash.  It is going to take a few more days to get used to the kind of pace we're keeping now.

There's certainly more to say, but I think it is going to be a long stretch with plenty of other opportunities to post.  We'll see if it sticks this time.

Stay home.  Stop the spread.  Save lives.